Blood Omen
by ZeenoDaAlien
Summary: A young man gains a horrific power.


**INTRODUCTION**

Do you know the difference between Good and Evil? Are you even sure what Good is? What Evil is? What if what you've always thought to be good and kind was actually evil and wrong? By now you're either questioning your beliefs or simply thinking I'm an old fool who thinks he knows everything, but before you make your final judgments, let me tell you a tale. Now don't worry this isn't the same old happy ending tale you've heard a thousand times no, no, this is a tale of a boy. Who meets a girl, then an incredible power that drives him insane, then another girl, and then it gets interesting. Now before I get ahead of myself, let me first introduce you to a boy, a boy who was born weak, a boy who grew powerful, a boy who changed the world forever….a boy named Owen Maestro.

**OWEN**

"OWEN MAESTRO YOU WAKE UP RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" The loud, shrill yelling of Owen's mother was always the first thing he would hear in the morning, and he hated it. He would love to wake up before his parents like he used to, but because of his sword training he would always come home extremely tired. Now this wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for that fact that his training was secret training that his mother did not know about, she was fooled into believing that he was simply cleaning the Town Leader's Hall. When he finally awoke, he put on his ragged clothing, and entered into the dining area of his small village home. "Sorry mother, the Village Leader's Hall is a large place after all. Takes quite awhile to clean" He always tried to be reasonable with his mother but she normally would block out all reason in place of her anger towards Owen's father who ran out on their family while he was young. Now this is in no way Owen's fault, but that did not stop her from making his life torture. "Owen, you are 14 years old it's time you man up and find a bride and a trade, you can't live off your mother's small income from washing clothes, I can barely live off of my income. Once you leave it will one less burden" This was starting to become a daily scolding from his mother. Owen tried to retort, but he bit his tongue knowing that it would be pointless to argue with her when she gets like this so he just sat silently and ate his breakfast. He looked up from his empty plate "Well, mother it's about time I go and begin my duties for the village, oh joy" He said sarcastically. "Listen here you little cur, working to make this village better is the greatest honor a pathetic little worm like you will ever experience. So it's time you perk up and enjoy your life, because it's never changing" His mother was just great at pep talks. He stood up fast and bust open the front door of their small shack, looked back at her and exclaimed "You may have lost any faith in me, but I'll prove that I'm worthy beyond this cesspool of a town!" And with that he walked out and slammed the door behind him, he now stood outside in what was truly like he said, a cesspool of a town. Carnay Village was a small village nestled on the western end of the Northern Kingdom, a notoriously small kingdom, but even so Carnay Village isn't often recognized by any passer-bys. King Randall Magisten himself isn't even aware of the village being in his domain, this utter lack of recognition is the reason for the villagers having zero confidence in any type of bright future. Owen Maestro looked around his bleak village; it only held around 60 villagers so everybody knew each other, especially him. Owen was the only person born to the village to not know his father, and this made him a pariah of sorts, "How strange he is" they would whisper, "We should just flog and exile him", "How can the Leader allow that freak into his chambers?" Sure the cruel words would cut him, but over the years decided that the opinions of those around him held no true value and thus the voices that followed in his trail became just that, voices. He stopped regarding the others as people a long time ago, and now on the eve of his 15th birthday Owen was ready to finish his sword training and leave his Gods forsaken village to join the King's army. Though Owen wouldn't make an impressive looking soldier standing at 5'6", made even odder was that fact that unlike the fair haired denizens of Carnay, he had dark black hair with Hazel colored eyes. His skin made him look as though he stayed in the sun for too long, but actually his father was a foreigner from the South Lands, another reason to be ousted by the village. When he finally arrived at the village leader's hall he was greeted by what could be described as a very unpleasant welcoming, that welcoming being a group of armed farmers yelling at the Leader using Owen's name quite a lot. "What's going on in here?!" Owen shouted at the congregation of angry villagers. "It's him!" One if them shouted, "Quick we must attack before he gets away!", screamed another. Then the largest one of the group stepped out from the crowd and gazed down at him, burning holes into Owen with the bright blue eyes of the village leaders. Owen knew this man, this is the son of the current Leader, the heir to the villages pseudo-throne, Minyol. All leaders are of a great bloodline that went back to a great king whose name has been lost to history, and all the males were born with the brightest, almost glowing, blue eyes. Owen hated those eyes. Of all the eyes that glare at him with hate, those two reflections of the sky burned into him the worst. "ENOUGH!" The booming command flowed through the large hall, and instantly all in the room were silent. All eyes moved to the small, dull, wooden throne of the leader who was slumping in it. The leader was the oldest man in the village, and what Owen has heard from traveling merchants he is older than anyone of at least 10 other villages, Owen often wondered just how old the Leader was and just how he has lived for so long. The Leader looked up, first at his son, and then at Owen, to who showed a slight smile which irritated Minyol to a great extent. "Now, I have heard all of your grievances and quite frankly you are all boring me with all your babbling of this and that. You are all men of good stature, all hard workers, and all fools!" The trembling voice that the Leader usually has, has been replaced by a booming, demanding voice that Owen has never heard before. Minyol pushed through to the Leader and screeched at him "Father! This, this, this THING is a burden on our village! We all know of the stories of Southerners. And this Halfling bares all the curses of them. Dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, all signs of Evil!". At the mention of the word "Evil" The Leader twitched uncomfortably. "Listen here son", Leader said son like it was a term of dissent rather than his child, "I am the Village Leader and I have been for the past….well for a very, very long time and no danger has ever come to our small town, and for the past almost 15 years that young Mr. Maestro has been here that hasn't changed. Now I appreciate the concern you all show for your village, but for the last time. GET. OUT. OF. MY. HALL!" and then almost like magic all but Owen and the Leader were gone from the hall. The Leader's expression went from anger to its usual look of complacency; he looked at Owen and spoke to him in his more calming voice "Owen my boy! It's good to see you again." "Leader, what was all that about? Are they really trying to get you to…to kill me?" Owen barely got the words out due to him starting to choke up. The Leader's face became serious, something Owen hardly ever saw even during his training. "Owen my boy, the superstitions that the villagers have had for generations are starting to become hard facts in their minds." The Leader stood and walked to the window that gazed out over the village, he looked upon the playing children and working mothers with his dull, yet still bright, blue eyes. "And I'm afraid my boy that there will soon be little that I can do for you." He said with a great deal of grief. Owen ran up to him and turned him around "What do you mean? What are they going to do to me? LEADER!" Owen's voice had become frantic out of fear. The Leader looked Owen straight in the eyes and spoke in the most soothing voice he had ever heard "They, will do nothing to harm you my boy…at least not for awhile." Owen wasn't really too keen on the whole "For awhile" concept but, the Leader's words were so comforting that Owen had no choice but to completely comply to the Leader's order. "Now Owen my boy, there will be no sword training today" Owen suddenly snapped out of his state of contempt "Wait, what? Why not? You said my final lesson was today, I was going to finally be able to leave and join the Kings army! Why is there no lesson?" The Leader now looked depressed and placed a boney had on Owen's shoulder. "Owen, you show great potential but unfortunately you just don't show the proper qualifications to master my style of fighting." The Leader then turned away from Owen and walked back and sat down in his throne. "Now Owen, leave my Hall." Owen said nothing but simply turned and busted open the doors and walked out, behind him through the slowly closing doors, a single tear ran down the whiskered cheek of the Leader. Owen was sitting atop the small mountain that watched over the road to Carnay, in earlier years this was probably a post for a guard but now its purpose was a place of solitude and contemplation for Owen. Usually the road to Carnay would be empty but today he saw something quite strange, he saw three figures; one was a hooded person running from the other two who appeared to be two very angry bald men who were quite determined to catch the hooded figure. Owen disregarded these strangers as it seemed to be a problem between them that didn't involve him, but as they got closer he saw the hooded figure's hood and cape fly off to reveal a beautiful flowing spread of golden locks, pale skin that looked as soft and untouched as newly fallen snow, and big, bold, yellow eyes. To put it frankly, Owen had fallen in love. With the reveal of this frightened beauty, Owen sprung into action; he rushed down the steep hill and tumbled to the road right as the girl got to him. She stared at him with complete confusion but before he could give a proper introduction the girl's two pursuers had caught up, much to the disapproval of Owen's eyes for these two men had to be the ugliest human beings he had ever seen in his entire life. Both men were bald, but the taller one had gruesome scars covering his head and it seemed as though his right eye had been cut out, his arms, which were both also scarred, were each about the size of a tree trunk. His smaller companion looked almost the same with the exception of his left eye not matching his right, in fact it actually matched the bigger guy's eye…this was something Owen decided to try not to find out about that. When Owen stood defiantly in front of the two men the smaller one open his mouth to talk, showing a mouth absent of any teeth or a tongue, Owen then realized that the little guy was smiling, a gross, toothless, smile. Then the bigger one talked in a squealing voice that sounds as though it would belong to the shorter one, "Oi! Lissin' here runt, that's our bloody prize!" The heavy Eastern accent was hard to decipher at first but when Owen finally grasped what the lug said he quickly jabbed the big guy right in his gut, then swiftly kicked the little guy in the side of his head, grabbed the girls hand and ran with her toward the village. "Look, I don't know you, I don't why they want you, but you don't seem too keen on spending time with them so I figured it be best if I helped you out, unless you object of course." He said this while still holding her hand tight running to Carnay. She seemed to squeeze onto his hand, picked up her speed and spoke in a voice so heavenly Owen thought he was about to pass out from bliss "Thank you kind sir, please keep those brutes away from me." She gave him a smile which acted like a form of an adrenaline boost because with that smile he pulled her into his arms and rushed off even faster and when he got to the bridge he placed her down and turned to face the two, now very angry, pursuers. He snapped off a piece of wood from the bridge and held it as a sword "Alright you two ugly oxen, if you want her you'll have to take me out." The bigger one got there first and squealed in his mousy voice "Fine then little worm! Me and my brother shall kill you, then take our prize maiden! Hahaha!" The big one's laugh sounded like a mix of wheezing from smoke and a mouse caught in a trap. When the shorter, less agile one got there the big guy wasted no time in attacking, he threw a quick and powerful punch right at Owen's face. He barely had anytime to deflect the blow with his wooden plank when the little guy then kicked him right in the gut. The kick was surprisingly strong and it sent him falling onto his back, the big guy then picked him up over his head and was about to throw him into the river when Owen snapped into action and bashed the big guy right in the back of his head with the plank and dropped to his feet. He looked at the shorter guy and the little guy seemed to have been screaming but no sound came from his toothless mouth. Owen smacked him across the face. Both men lay on the ground knocked unconscious, Owen looked at the girl and now that the fear has been wiped from her face her he finally saw just how truly beautiful she was. He felt like he was about to faint, he wasn't sure if it was because of the kick he took from the little guy, or the intensity of the big smile and hug she gave him. "My Hero!" She exclaimed, which didn't help with his wooziness. "It was nothing really miss…." He held her hand in a respectful manner waiting for her name. "Magisten, Myra Magisten. Pleasure to meet you, great hero." She said this and shot him another magnificent smile. He looked at her dumbly before kissing her hand, and when he did this he finally processed through his mind that she just said Magisten, the royal name. "M-m-m-m-m-Magisten? M-m-m-m-m-Myra Magisten? As in…as in the PRINCESS of the Northern Kingdom?" He said this in complete disbelief, shock, and well, excitement. She giggled at him tripping over his words, "Yes, Princess Myra Magisten, and what is your name my, oh so well spoken hero" she giggled again and waited for him to collect himself to answer. He slapped himself to gain some composure. "My name is uh, um, my name is Maewen Ostro." She giggled again. "No wait sorry, um it's Owen Maestro, yes that's it. Owen Maestro." He stood proudly at the correct saying of his name. She playfully bowed and grabbed onto his hands. " Well Ser Owen Maestro, you have the humblest of thanks from your Princess for saving her life." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, which sent him over and he passed out. She was just too much beauty for one man to handle all at once….

Enough of Owen for now. Yes, yes I know I said he was this big bad hero or whatever, but the hero of a tale isn't the only important character. A great tale must also have a good antagonist, yes and this particular tale happens to have just that. A good antagonist. Now I say antagonist, not bad guy, the antagonist of this tale was not truly a bad guy, at least not to the people he protected as the Commander of the Royal army. He was the pinnacle of kindness to all the peasants of the Northern Kingdom, but to the men who served under him he was a brutal, heartless leader and fighter. So tell me, Is this antagonist a good guy, or a bad guy? Do you know what would make him good? What about what would make him bad? I apologize; I must stop before you start thinking too much before I get the second half of the beginning of this tale started. Ahem, Commander Ulymond was born in The Marble City of Lydon outside of the four kingdoms, but he was not truly Lydonian. Ulymond's parents moved out to Lydon after the first Magisten king took control of the Northern lands, he grew up in Lydon learning their language, culture, and when he turned 15, their style of war. At age 20 Ulymond said goodbye to his aging parents and returned to his true homeland in the Northern Kingdom's lands. He joined the King's army and swiftly rose to the rank of Commander, the highest position in the military; the only people higher than him were those in the Royal Court. Ulymond prided himself on appearance, maybe a little too much to be honest, and thus he made sure his solid gold long sword was perfectly polished, his long light brown hair would always be slicked back and would stay there perfectly no matter how harsh a battle he was in. Frankly the guy was a hopeless romantic….with the mirror, for Droa's sake the man would make Narcissus look humble. Ahem, anyways, on this glorious day The Great and Almighty Commander of The Royal Army (No lie that's how he would introduce himself to people…sheesh) was taking a stroll through the kingdom with five of his most trusted soldiers, and by stroll I mean they were day 7 in deep search of the run away princess who wanted to see the world beyond the capital city of Kreegen. Last they heard she hired a couple of bodyguards from a tavern a few towns back, The Compassion Brothers they were called, a very ironic name for they are known as two of the most brutal enemies for anyone to face, but there is a legend about how they show compassion to each other, Martin the Younger was a short man with a beautiful voice and it said that he could rob you blind just by asking you for your coin, and his older brother Shawn who was said to have the eyesight of a Falcon 10-fold. Now the legend goes that one day Shawn was hunting when he somehow missed an arrow and he angered his prey, right as the beast charged him his brother pushed him out of the way, the animal's horn happened to rip across Martin's eye practically ripping it out its socket. The legend goes on to say that Shawn felt such grief that he went to a witch and asked her to heal his brother, she agreed but she told Shawn that he must offer something that prized he the most. So Shawn offered his precious falcon-like eye to the witch and she used this to heal Martin, Shawn was forever cursed with only one eye. Years later Shawn was caught in a nasty scuffle and he was beaten so badly his head looked like a fountain of blood and his teeth were scattered all over the ground. It also seemed as though one of his attackers stabbed him in the neck to keep him quiet, when Martin found him he felt such a great amount of grief for not being there for his brother that he went to the same witch that helped him so many years ago and she offered the same deal, she would heal Shawn for a price. So Martin offered his pearly white teeth, his quick and silvered tongue, and his heavenly voice box, all these became Shawn's and he was completely healed showing only scars left by the attack. Ulymond ran this story through his head over and over again, such love and self-sacrifice these two had for each other surely the princess would be safe with them. He scoffed at his childish thought, these two loved only each other, they would sacrifice for only each other, anyone else in their way would be seen as expendable. He shuddered at the thought and increased his speed, practically running, he HAD to find Princess Myra, for the good of the princess, for the good of the kingdom, but most importantly, for the good of his reputation. You know those Lydonians, it's all about fame and glory for them so, I guess I can't really blame him for being self-absorbed. He was raised to be so. Ulymond and his group reached a small shack on the side of the road; he figured he should look inside. Perhaps there would be a helpful little peasant that he could torture into telling him where the princess was. He opened the small shack and inside was a man in his late 20s with long black hair, and a scruffy black beard. He looked up at Ulymond with big, brown eyes full of sorrow. Although the man seemed to only be around 24 he already had a face full of wrinkles, the man opened his dry mouth and spoke in a cracked voice "Hello good sir, may I be of some assistance?" The man spoke with a heavy accent, Ulymond couldn't tell where it was from though. It didn't sound like an accent from any part of the kingdoms. "What land do you hail from stranger? Your way of speaking is quite strange to me." The man smirked and chuckled a bit. "The same could be said about you my proper friend, but I digress. I hail from the land of the Outskirt Deserts. A very unpleasant land, very dry as well. I wouldn't recommend it." Ulymond regarded the man as quite odd and spoke to him in his most calmed voice. "So tell me stranger, have you seen a fair young woman? Possibly traveling with two brutish men, one is missing an eye?" The man motioned to exit the small shack to which Ulymond gladly complied. "Well then, let me think." The man rubbed his bushy whiskers then looked at the group of soldiers that were traveling with Ulymond. "You're a very efficient looking search party I assume hunting down young girls isn't your normal hobby?" Ulymond looked at the man and wasn't sure if should be insulted or complimented by the strangers remark. "No, it is indeed not my normal duty. This particular girl is of special importance to the King." "So she's the Princess eh?" The man said this time with a sense of arrogance that Ulymond found annoying. "What makes you say that with such confidence?" Ulymond unsheathed his golden long sword. "What do you know of the princess's travels you old fool?!" The man simply smiled and backed up into his shack. For awhile nothing else happened. Ulymond stood there, staring at the rambling shack, in total disbelief of the man's lack of fear. How dare this peasant show no fear when the great Commander Ulymond reveled his fabled blade of pure gold? Yes, I told you he was an arrogant ass didn't I? Eventually Ulymond became impatient and right as he was about to kick down the shack the man busted out of the roof, did a very impressive back flip, and then landed on his feet. In each hand he wielded a long curved sword, a _Shamshir_ , the weapon of the Desert Dwellers. The man stood and held his right blade at Ulymond in pure defiance. "Come at me my brethren in combat, and face Izrael Khan of The Bleeding Sand!" With this challenge Ulymond charged Izrael and slashed at him vertically, missing at an embarrassingly large margin. Izrael then appeared behind him and slashed down with both Shamshir, but luckily for Ulymond his men weren't there just as background scenery and his archer shot an arrow right at Izrael. When he went to deflect the arrow, another soldier ran and smacked him with his war hammer. Ulymond then looked up pulling his sword from the ground after it got stuck from the force he put into his missed attack. He walked over to Izrael, grabbed him by the hair, stared him in the eyes, and spoke in a low, demonish voice. "You dare try to embarrass The Great and Almighty Commander of The Royal Army Ulymond. I shall not kill you here today, no, you shall suffer the proper punishment for this crime. I shall have you locked in the castle dungeon for the rest of time, you shall be fed well and washed. I will treat you kindly, but you will wish for death for I shall keep you in chains and every day and at noon you shall be tortured by whatever means I find acceptable for the day." He let Izrael go then proceeded to stomp him senseless. When Ulymond felt then man was properly beaten he told two of his men to stay and watch for he would return with the princess and take her and Izrael to Kreegen. He knelt down again and spoke in his demon voice again. "Listen here Izrael Khan of the Bleeding Sand." (Why these two made up these long embellishing names, I will never know) "You will forever rue the day you ever decided to challenge me, may Droa have mercy on you, for I surely will not." He then slapped Izrael and went along about his business down the road like nothing had ever happened…..

Now you might be wondering what this delightful little note has to do with my original story, well these two men are indeed connected. They will challenge each other, push each other, and eventually, destroy each other. Yes, but before I get ahead of myself let's check back on our daring hero Owen, who had just saved the beautiful princess. The two brutes that were chasing her woke up to find themselves tied up with Owen and Myra waiting. Owen was very anxious to start asking them some questions. "Alright you two ugly sons of bitches, why were you chasing this lovely girl here?" The big one looked up with his one eye and spoke in his uncharacteristic squeaky voice. "Oi, lissen hare ya squirt. That thar lassy thar owes me an' me brutha hare a ole lotta coins for protectin har an' what not." "Ok could you please be quiet now? Gods your accent combined with that voice is like having a knife being twisted in my ears" The large guy spat at Owen at that "Well ya know boy tat cin be arranged an' what not. I cin get a knif roight in ya ear an' what not. Eheheh" Owen proceeded to kick him in the gut then knee him in the head. "Alright why doesn't the little one talk? Lose all his teeth in a bet or something?" After coughing up some blood the big guy again spat at Owen before talking. "Oi, me brutha hare lost all him teef afta I got meself mussed up inna street brawl." Oh yeah? I assume that's also how you lost your eye eh? Seems pretty cruel for those guys to do that, I mean you're already pretty damn ugly, but that missing eye is a whole nother level of nasty." Myra tugged on his sleeve and looked at him with such a sad look he himself started feeling sad. "Um, Owen please don't be so mean. They're right I did skip out on paying them, but I was going to give them the gold that was promised to them AFTER I returned safely to the capital. Unfortunately these two decided that an hour of walking was enough time to collect their payment." She suddenly kicked the smaller man right the face knocking him over. "Whoa. Well now, aren't we the little spitfire?" Owen looked at her with great admiration realizing that he liked girls with spunk, and the fact that she's also beautiful and a princess just added to his adoring of Myra. "Now then, if I let you two go will you peacefully go back to whatever hole in the wall you come from?" The little guy shook his head, and then big guy managed to get to his feet. "Oi, boy iffen' you let us go, den we won't bloody ya up rale what good like. We just take the lassy wit us back to pay what she be owin' us." He gave a flawless smile at Myra which made Owen extremely angry because he knew what the man meant by paying what she owes. "Well then, if it's going to be like that." Owen walked behind the little guy placed one hand on top of his head, and another under his chin, then forcefully snapped his neck like it was a twig. "NOOOOOOO, me brutha! You killed me brutha! Dat's it boy! Imma rip your throat out an' strangle da lassy wit it til she starts bleedin out her eyes! Den imma-Eck!" The large guy suddenly had a rock jutting from his throat. Owen took it upon himself to silence the big oaf before he could threaten Myra anymore. "Well, so much for all that eh laddy" He looked over to Myra to see the she was about to cry. "Y-you. You, killed them. Owen, you killed them." Owen ,almost heartbroken, walked to her and clasped her hands in his and looked into her watery eyes. "Myra, I killed them yes. But I killed them for you, I killed them to protect you. It's how I've been trained." She wiped away a tear and looked at him with great curiosity. "You've been trained? But, how?" Owen gave a bit of a chuckle. "Well the village leader has been secretly training me for years now, and when I'm old enough I'm going to take my skills off to the capital and join the royal army. Then, my Princess, I'll always be able to protect you." And with that said Myra did something that Owen will never forget, something that he was definitely not expecting. She kissed him right on the lips. Now this wasn't some little peck that'd you'd expect from a lady no, no. She gave him a long, deep kiss that left him silly. "I, uh, you, um, princess I, uh, hehehe." She giggled her cute little giggle. "Seems my brave protector has been defeated by a simple kiss." She gave him a wink then walked out of the cave that their interrogation was being held in. Owen eventually stumbled out to join her. "So my princess, how will you be getting back to


End file.
